Cleaning

Airplane windows and helicopter bubbles are just like the windows in your house... except that they scratch 100 times as easily and cost 100 times as much.

Glass is heavy. Airplanes need to be light. Thus, airplane windows are made of acrylic, popularly known as Plexiglas or "plastic." Plastic scratches much more easily than glass.

Here are the steps:

• Pour at least an entire bucket of water over the canopy, bubble, or window to remove surface grit.
• Alternatively, hose off the grit.
• Spray with windshield cleaner
• Wipe lightly with a 100-percent cotton cloth to dry and remove lightly attached dirt. Use up-down/left-right motions of the cloth, never circular motions, which create scratches that generate a lot of glare.

Exterior cleaning

Use low pressure washing on:

• landing gear and landing gear bay.
• hydraulic tubes, and air/ground sensors.\